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Depression

As all of us grow and mature and burden of responsibilities fall more and more on our shoulders, we appreciate the value of the cliche ‘life is not a bed of roses’. Some of us have defence mechanisms built inside in our minds through our genetic history or upbringing that can cope with the stresses of life pretty well. However a lot us feel quite helpless in face of growing tensions and stresses that unfolds everyday in our lives. In fact depression and anxiety are common debilitating experience in life of 45% of population in Australia. Every year 1 million Australians experience depression and another 2 million experience anxiety.

Counsellor Jade in Bondi Junction, NSW provides help to people afflicted with worry and depression. She provides counselling in English and French and deals with men and women of all age groups including parents, couples and adolescents. She has Bachelor’s degree in Science (psychology) from London university and Masters degree in Forensic Psychology from University of NSW and has 13 years experience as a counsellor in the field of mental health and women’s health.

The techniques used during therapy are CBT or cognitive behaviour therapy, ACT or acceptance or commitment therapy, psychodynamic therapy. CBT focuses on finding out unhelpful and negative thought patterns and try to balance them out. It also tries to inculcate helpful and positive thought patterns through action thereby alleviating unpleasant feelings. ACT is another method of therapy where instead of fighting negative thought patterns one accepts them and takes steps to improve one’s circumstances. Psychodynamic therapy focuses on the unconscious methods as they’re manifested in an individual’s present behaviour. Goals of this therapy are a client’s self-awareness & understanding of influence of past on the present behaviour.

There are many success stories where patients suffering from anxiety related disorders and depression found real relief. Josie is one of them. She was suffering from depression for a long time. She was a single woman and had a very poor self esteem & body image. It was because of these that she isolated herself from the society and this actually lead to the feelings of depression and loneliness. According to Jade, “Identifying the negative thoughts and feelings, expressing them and feeling understood and supported empowered Josie to challenge her unhelpful thinking about herself, and encouraged her to slowly face her fears of being socially rejected. Josie made efforts to go to dance classes and to ask friends to go out in the evenings – even when she did not feel like it or felt scared of being rejected, which led her to build on each ‘achievement’ and feel stronger and more confident. Six months later, she was more outgoing socially, felt less lonely, took care of her body and her appearance and felt much better about herself. She now has a boyfriend.”

What is depression?Many a times we feel sad, hopeless, fed up and angry. All these are negative feelings which we often go through different phases in our life for different reasons. These feelings doesn’t go away easily. These may last for a long time and after a certain stage they result in what’s called depression.

Symptoms of depression:There are many symptoms of depression. Some common symptoms are stated below:

Feelings of sadness

Tiredness

Self harm

Feeling lonely

Depletion of interest

Energy loss

Loss of self-confidence

Getting sentimental

Physical depletion

Not able to work

Not able to sleep properly

How to treat depression?Here are some natural remedies, which you can use to take care of the depression phase. Have a look:Plan a healthy lifestyle:Prepare a disciplined routine for your daily work. This will keep you in track. When we are depressed we often overeat. You need to get in control of your eating to feel better. Eat healthy and avoid junk foods, late night parties etc.

Increase your sleep:As stated earlier that loss of sleep is also one of the symptoms of being depressed so getting enough sleep can heal the stage of depression. So take time to relax and have a soundless sleep. Little sleep may make depression worse.

Get in touch with a psychotherapist:One of the best ways to get rid from depression is by getting an appointment with a French psychologist. You need to share all your problems with the professional psychologist and get support and advice that’s needed for your betterment.

Talk More:Talk with your family and friends. Share your problems with them as much as you can. Exchange ideas with them so that you can recognize the reason behind your depletion stage. Taking advices can create a positive impact. You can get relief from the depression that you are suffering from.

Exercise a lot:Mental and physical exercise both plays an important part to cure the depression phase. Regular exercise results in encouraging the brain to boot up positively. Early morning jogging, yoga, meditation and inhaling fresh air is good for health. Maintaining a daily and proper exercise is a must for all those who are suffering from dejection.

Involve yourself into fun-filled activities:Think of an activity which you like to do. The more you involve yourself in some interactive as well interesting actions, the more you will forget about all the stress you are suffering from. Do something new to engage yourself and ignore all rest of the problems.

Alcoholism, as defined by doctors and psychologists, is literally a sickness characterised by social, physiological or psychological dysfunction brought about due to excessive and continuous use of alcohol. It produces hindrance in a person’s life by hampering their health, work, social life and responsibilities towards family. Therefore, besides harming themselves, alcoholics also affect their own families, associates and other people through their drinking problem.

There are countless health hazards associated with alcoholism, the most common ones being elevated blood pressure, liver cirrhosis, malnutrition, chronic pancreatitis and cancer. Sometimes, chronic alcohol consumption can also cause permanent damage to the peripheral and central nervous systems. Apart from health problems, issues such as divorces, unemployment, criminal activities and domestic violence are also associated with people having drinking problem.

Causes of Alcoholism

As with any substance abuse disorder, the onset of alcoholism can be triggered due to a number of risk factors. Some of them are as follows:

In Australia, around 18 percent of the total population are victims of alcoholism. Those who do not suffer from the problem may find it hard to believe, but almost 4 percent Australians consume alcohol every day in excessive quantities.

Fortunately, there are several methods for curing this horrible life-threatening addiction. One of the most effective counter-measures is counselling. Psychiatric counselling or talking therapy can help alcoholics understand why they drink excessively. It can also aid them in identifying the root factor that triggers their drinking problem. Most of the times, victims are able to find new ways to cope with associated anxieties and stresses, and they get the required support to work through feelings of guilt and shame.

Jade Couquax is a putative Frenchpsychologist in Bondi. Besides helping people afflicted with various psychological disorders, she also provides counselling therapies to victims of drug abuse and alcoholism. If you or your loved one is finding it hard to quit alcohol, contact Jade for help today.